Networks Set Special Joan Rivers Programming; Funeral is Sunday

*Networks are lining up special programming this weekend to honor the life of Joan Rivers.

E! enjoyed a special relationship with the one-and-only Joan Rivers for the past 20 years, and will honor Joan’s legacy in the one-hour E! News special, “Joan Rivers: Celebrating An Icon” airing tonight, Friday, September 5th at 9 p.m. ET/PT. Hosted by E! News’ Jason Kennedy and Catt Sadler, who will be joined throughout the hour by George Kotsiopoulos, Ken Baker and other members of the E! on-air family who knew Joan well, the special will include highlights from Joan’s unmatched career, a look back at her early days, and at the tremendous outpouring of love and support from “Joan’s Rangers,” her legion of fans.

Also tonight, a special edition of NBC’s Dateline, “Celebrating Joan Rivers” will look back at her extraordinary life and legacy at 9pm/8c. Friends and fellow comics will pay tribute, including Kathy Griffin, Dick Cavett, Donald Trump, Don Rickles, Gilbert Gottfried and Lily Tomlin. Kathie Lee Gifford and Hoda Kotb will co-anchor tonight’s one-hour special broadcast. “Celebrating Joan Rivers” will also feature memorable moments and interviews throughout Rivers’ groundbreaking career, as well as additional reporting on the day she entered Mount Sinai Hospital.

Bravo’s “Watch What Happens Live,” hosted by Andy Cohen will rerun her most recent episode on the late-night series on Sunday, Sept. 7 at 11:30 p.m. ET/PT. With numerous appearances on “Watch What Happens Live,” Rivers last appeared with Maksim Chmerkovskiy on July 29, 2014 to promote her new book “Diary of a Mad Diva” and E! series “Fashion Police.”

TV Land will celebrate the comedienne with a special programming block on Sunday, Sept. 7 from 6 to 11:30 p.m. ET/PT. The block will begin with Rivers’ guest appearance on “Hot In Cleveland,” where she played Anka, the sister to Betty White’s Elka (an encore of the episode will air at 11pm). From 6:30 p.m. to 10 p.m. will be her original TV Land series “How’d You Get So Rich?” which Rivers interviewing inventors and innovators to discover how they became wealthy. In the final episode, Joan shares her own rags to riches story and gives a tour of her stunning Connecticut estate. Rounding out TV Land’s salute to Joan Rivers will be an airing of ABC’s “20/20 Joan Rivers: Living for the Laughs” tribute special at 10 p.m. Expect to see clips of the legendary personality in action in addition to thoughts and memories shared by those who knew and loved her.

Rivers died Thursday at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York. She had been hospitalized since Aug. 28 when she went into cardiac arrest during a routine procedure at a doctor’s office. The New York state health department is investigating the circumstances, and further tests are needed to pinpoint her exact cause of death, the New York City medical examiner said Friday.

Joan’s funeral will be held at Temple Emanu-El in New York on Sunday. Details about whether or not the service will be private were not available. It is also unknown what time the services will be held.

The folks over at Buzzfeed added gifs to the now-famous passage in her latest book “I Hate Everyone…Starting With Me,” where she describes her dream funeral…

“When I die (and yes, Melissa, that day will come; and yes, Melissa, everything’s in your name), I want my funeral to be a huge showbiz affair with lights, camera, action…”

“I want Craft services, I want paparazzi and I want publicists making a scene! I want it to be Hollywood all the way.”

“I don’t want some rabbi rambling on; I want Meryl Streep crying, in five different accents.”

“I don’t want a eulogy; I want Bobby Vinton to pick up my head and sing ‘Mr. Lonely.’”

“I want to look gorgeous, better dead than I do alive. I want to be buried in a Valentino gown and I want Harry Winston to make me a toe tag.”

“And I want a wind machine so that even in the casket my hair is blowing just like Beyoncé’s.”

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